While it's easy for either side of this debate to claim the absolute moral high ground (ie: trade liberalisation always creates jobs and wealth vs Free Trade demolishes labour rights and creates ghettoes of poverty), as is often the case the truth is somewhere in between. Which usually means your average punter doesn't have the time or the will to look into it further (guilty as charged your honour).
Today in the New York Times though is this great article that traces the growth of US clothing companies using factories in Jordan. Actual stories rather than theories are far more powerful.
Have a read, it won't take long. And then start to wonder, where are the clothes I'm wearing coming from?
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7 comments:
Could our Our American friend who loves Austrians respond to this.
You Austrians are goddam COMMIES!
Now where's my Bud?
Hey Yank, a word of advice.
Never miss a good chance to shut up.
So has anyone actually read the article yet?
I reckon you just can't win. Buy your clothes from Kmart, and you're exploiting a 3c/hr 8yr old Bangladeshi. Buy your clothes from FCUK and you're exploiting a 1.5c/hr 5yr old Taiwanese kid. Make you're own clothes, and you put them out of a job (and look like a clown, depending on your tailor/fashion skills).
Check out www.fairwear.org.au - a really good resource in finding which clothing outlets are more proactive in finding equitable labour sources and which ones are not. At the very least it's a way to be informed, even if we are never free of the bind you mention.
Good article. Its so complicated. I tried to buy gym shoes once that werent made anywhere where people might be exploited. I think it was only Brooks that made theirs in the UK. Amazing.
With our new IR "laws", makes you wonder what is coming.
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